Controversial East Pasadena development with 550 apartments off the 210 Freeway gets green light

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A man heads to his storage space at Space Bank Mini Storage in Pasadena on Tuesday, July 10, 2018. Pasadena is considering a plan to demolish 29 buildings for a mixed-use development on East Foothill Boulevard between North Kinneloa Avenue and Sierra Madre Villa Avenue where the storage facility is located. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Pasadena Star News/SCNG)

A controversial development project that includes building 550 new apartments — 69 of which will be affordable housing — in East Pasadena will move forward, the Pasadena City Council decided Monday night.

The project — planned for the 8.53-acre plot of land on East Foothill Boulevard between North Kinneloa and Sierra Madre Villa where a storage facility currently operates — will also include 9,800 square feet of restaurant and shopping space.

One of the main concerns raised by local residents and council members alike is the potential health risk for those who move into the complex, because it will abut the 210 Freeway.

The proposal first came to the council last week, when it hit a stumbling block because only four council members voted to approve it, one shy of the necessary majority. Councilman Victor Gordo was absent, meaning the issue had to come back to the council on the chance he would provide the crucial fifth vote.

When it did come back to the full council on Monday, Gordo voted not to approve it until an analysis of the project’s impact on traffic could be completed. But Vice Mayor John Kennedy, who had voted against the proposal last week, flipped his vote to allow the project to move forward.

While last week he had one of the strongest voices of opposition on the basis of the proven negative health impacts associated with living close to freeways, Kennedy said he would acquiesce on the condition that tenants could learn those of the potential health risks before signing a lease.

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“Unless we have some language that makes full disclosure to residents of the development, I will not be able to support it,” Kennedy said. “I can say that emphatically.”

Ultimately, his fellow council members agreed, and Kennedy voted to support the project.

Residents who publicly spoke about the proposal voiced a variety of concerns, including increased traffic congestion and the health hazards from the freeway air.

But some of the 11 people who were opposed to the project also referenced the site’s former use as a U.S. Navy weapons research facility before Space Bank Mini Storage took over the land in 1978. The soil there has been contaminated ever since, and the developer, Pasadena Gateway LLC, has committed to a soil cleanup as part of its proposal.

Kristin Shrader-Frechette and others said they don’t trust the builder to do an adequate job.

“The developer of this project ignores massive, abundant, scientific consensus showing the scientific, the medical liabilities and particularly the economic liabilities to any city which tries to develop a former U.S. classified weapons military test site,” she said. “It’s like putting a planned development in Love Canal.”

Others were supportive of the project. Miles Miller was one of the four people who spoke in favor during public comment.

“East Pasadena doesn’t really have any destination locations like Old Pasadena does or like South Lake does,” Miller said. “There is no place that people want to walk around, and really the … only place people really want to go in East Pasadena is the In-N-Out Burger. So I believe having a mixed-use development like this would give East Pasadena something to build upon for the future.”

At the end of the 2 1/2-hour discussion, councilmen Gordo, Tyron Hampton and Gene Masuda — the latter of whom represents District 4, where the site is located — comprised the minority voting against the project.

Masuda couldn’t get past the air quality concerns, he said.

“I voted against this complex last week, mainly because I certainly have the responsibility to protect the quality of life for not only District 4 residents, but for all residents in Pasadena,” he said. “It’s a known fact that if you live near a freeway, it’s unhealthy. It’s dangerous to your health.”

Hayley Munguia covers Long Beach City Hall for the Southern California News Group. She previously worked as a data reporter for FiveThirtyEight and has written for The Week, the Jerusalem Post and the Austin American-Statesman, among other publications. She's originally from Austin, graduated from NYU and will pet a dog any chance she gets.